Janet Seymour-Smith born Janet de Granville (25 August 1930 – 2 September 1998) was an English translator and scholar. She worked as a translator of Greek texts for

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...

and she became a life-long muse and collaborator with her prolific writer husband

Martin Seymour-Smith Martin Roger Seymour-Smith (24 April 1928 – 1 July 1998) was a British poet, literary critic, and biographer. Biography Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Highgate School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was editor of ''Isi ...

Life

Seymour-Smith was born in 1930 in

Littleham Littleham is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of north Devon in south west England, about south of Bideford. The parish had a population of 446 at the 2011 census. The parish is bounded by the River Torridge in the north-eas ...

near Exmouth. Her parents were Hilda St Hilary Edith Everard (born Mayne) and her husband Lionel Richard Gethin de Glanville. Her father was a physician and she went to school in the south-west and later in North Wales. She went to Oxford to study the classics at

Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

. When Robert Graves published

The Greek Myths ''The Greek Myths'' (1955) is a mythography, a compendium of Greek mythology, with comments and analyses, by the poet and writer Robert Graves. Many editions of the book separate it into two volumes. Abridged editions of the work contain only th ...

in two volumes in 1955 he had based his work on the translations by Janet Seymour-Smith. She began working for Graves in Mallorca where she was employed as a translator while her boyfriend, Martin Seymour-Smith was a tutor to one of Graves' children. Janet also taught Latin to Robert Graves's son, William. Robert Graves who was their employer and an old school friend of Martin's was a witness at their wedding at Mallorca's British Consulate in 1952. They were still in Mallorca the following year when their first child was born. Another of Graves' collaborators in

Banyalbufar Banyalbufar is a municipality on the Spain, Spanish Balearic Islands, Balearic island of Majorca. The town of the same name is the administrative seat of the municipality. It borders the municipalities of Estellencs, Puigpunyent, Esporles, and Vall ...

was

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Char ...

who was interested in printing. He later wrote his only novel "The Island" which features the characters of Artie and Marge based on Janet and her husband. She did not push herself forward.

Robert Nye The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

described her as delicate and incandescent. She had periods where her husband had to mentally support her. Her husband published poetry but this was dwarfed by his large biographies and huge works such as ''The Guide to Modern World Literature'' which at its second edition had 1400 pages and when challenged he admitted that Janet had written some of the work. Smith died in 1998 in

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. ...

. When Robert Nye published ''Mrs. Shakespeare: The Complete Works'' in 2000 he devoted the book to Martin and Janet Seymour-Smith.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour-Smith, Janet 1930 births 1998 deaths People from Exmouth Translators from Ancient Greek Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford